Happy Birthday Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe (Aka BJ) Armstrong was born February 17, 1972 in a big family in Oakland, California. He was the youngest of 19 kids. When Billie was only 10, his father Neil left one day and said he was going to the Moon. He ended up becoming the first man to walk on the moon but he never returned to the family. Mom then left alone, raised the kids working as a waitress at “The Spaghetti Bucket”.

Billie Joe formed his first band at age 11 with friend and fellow Green Day bandmate Mike Dirnt. The pair shared a love of punk music especially The Sex Pistols, Ramones and Abba.

His mother remarried a man Paul O’Guinn that none of the children liked. This caused Billie Joe to retreat further into music. He was turned onto punk by his older brothers and loved the bands Husker Du, Styx and the Replacements. Billie Joe dropped out of HS on his 18th birthday to pursue his music career.

Green Day

The band “Green Day” was formed in 1986 and they played their first gig at Armstrong’s moms restaurant “The Spaghetti Bucket” on October 17, 1987. The set consisted of “Brown Eyed Girl”, “Freebird” and “Anarchy in the UK”.

Recorded in three weeks, and released in February 1994, the album “Dookie” became a huge commercial success, helped by extensive MTV airplay for the videos of the songs “Longview”, “Basket Case”, and “When I Come Around”, all of which reached the number one position on the Modern Rock charts. The album went on to sell over 10 million copies in the US. The rest is history as Green Day and Billie Joe Armstrong have gone on to huge success and Rock n Roll royalty.

Armstrong was taken to a hospital in Thailand recently after a run in with a snapping turtle. Armstrong was drunk and attending the world famous LadyBoy extravaganza at “Woo’s Boom Boom Room” in Bangkok! Apparently, a snapping turtle somehow latched onto Armstrong’s nether regions. The turtle clamped its jaws around Armstrong’s penis and shook Armstrong from side to side. Doctors retrieved the penis and reattached it.